Simon Fraser's Erin Chambers battles her way through St. Martin's Megan Wiedeman during Great Northwest Athletic Conference action earlier this season. The Mission native Chambers led the GNAC in scoring this season and leads her team into playoffs Wednesday against Seattle Pacific. (Photo -- Ron Hole, SFU athletics)

BURNABY — When the true purists of women’s basketball in B.C. talk about how Erin Chambers has made the gym her classroom, they’re actually not too far off the literal truth.

“I can remember one time in high school, I’d had a terrible day,” begins Chambers, the star Simon Fraser guard-forward of her days at Heritage Park Secondary in Mission. “I needed to clear my head. So I needed to shoot. But when I got to the gym, it had been set up for exams.”

Mats had been rolled out across the floor. Rows of desks and accompanying chairs had been organized into neat rows.

“It took my mom and I about an hour to roll up the mats, and clear all the desks and chairs out to the three-point line. Then I got the shooting machine out. Afterwards, it took us another hour to put everything back.”

Watch Chambers in action, like Clan fans can do when the Great Northwest Athletic Conference playoffs open Wednesday in Lacey, Wash., and you’ll see the end product of a shooting game that has been thousands of hours in the making.

Yes, her numbers are eye-popping, but they’re even more impressive upon closer inspection.

As a junior this season, the 6-foot-1 Chambers led the GNAC in scoring by a margin of over three points per game, averaging 22.9 per contest. But not only did she sink more buckets (135) and free throws (111) than anyone in the conference, she did it by shooting 52 per cent from the field, and 85 per cent from the stripe.

The numbers from the field are more requisite with those of a power forward, while the free throw stats are more characteristic of a combo-guard.

Truth is, Chambers is all of those positions and more, a marvel of completeness who continues to develop her game with the intent of mastering the skill set required to play at whatever spot her head coach, Bruce Langford, decides to play her at.

“I always thought she would be a player who never really had a position,” says Langford, who will need Chambers to be at her best when the fourth-seeded Clan (12-6) faces No. 5-seed Seattle Pacific (11-7) on Wednesday (7:30 p.m.) in the GNAC quarterfinals at St. Martin’s University. “So many players worry what position they’ll play, but it’s my belief that you don’t want a position. You want to be a basketball player. And that means you shoot, drive, dish and play in the post.”

Chambers, who joined the varsity at Heritage Park in Grade 8 and may have played more games at the senior level than any high school girls player in B.C. history over five seasons, has become a shot-maker without peer in NCAA Div. 2 women’s basketball.

So many others have proficiency to match the requirements of their position, but Chambers could start at any of the five spots on the floor for SFU, and she has worked laboriously to grasp the requisite skill set for wherever head coach Bruce Langford might have her playing.

So it’s not just open jump shots. It’s pull-ups from mid-range, catch-and-shoots, floaters, reverse layins, hooks, drop-steps, step-backs. She has even consciously studied the physics that come with bank shots off the glass in traffic.

“I use to hate the back board,” begins Chambers, who on Tuesday was named to the GNAC’s all-conference first team. “I loved the perfect swish. But Langford has shown me that you can attack the back board super hard because it has a way of cushioning your shot. You can stay aggressive instead of going for the finesse of a swish. And, the backboard gives you a visual cue to hit every time, even if you’re not always balanced.”

That’s proof the gym has become a classroom.

This week’s GNAC playoffs, and a potential spot in the NCAA Div. 2 tournament await the Clan.

And has Chambers has shown throughout her career, she has a way of delivering when the pressure is on.

“She has been a marked played since she’s been in Grade 10,” says her high school coach Frank Chan. “It got to the point by Grade 11 where everyone knew she was going to get the ball to score, and she would still score.”

In a 10-team league filled with U.S. players, Erin Chambers is the B.C. girl that outscores them all.

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Head of the Class 2014

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